notes for BJMC3 By Aayush

Definition: Defamation may be by words, either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs or visible representation. Any person who makes or publishes any imputation concerning any person, knowing that such imputation will harm, the reputation of such person, is said, to defame that person.
Some defences: Truth published for public interest.
•Any expression in good faith on the conduct of a public servant on a public question.
•Publication of a substantially true report.
•It is not defamation to prefer in good faith an accusation against any person to any of those who have lawful authority over that person with respect to the subject matter of accusation.
•It is not defamation to make an imputation on the character of another person, provided it is made in good faith by person for protection of his or other’s interests.
Punishment: Section 500 of IPC prescribes imprisonment for a term that may extend to two years, or fine, or both.
Example OF defamation cases in India are

UMA KHURANA FAKE STING CASE AIRED ON AUGUST 30. She was convicted by court and she filed a defamation against the news channel Live India and its CEO.
She had to bear harassments as a result of the fake sting.

Jaylalita Party filing case against Karunanidhi for making ubrupt comments on her in public.
Can be libel or slander Libel means written comm.. and slander means oral.


ACTIVISM IN MEDIA
In a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument.
The word "activism" is often used synonymously with protest or dissent, but activism can stem from any number of political orientations and take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, both work stoppages and hunger strikes, or even guerrilla tactics.
In some cases, activism has nothing to do with protest or confrontation. For instance, some religious, or vegetarian/vegan activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than persuade governments to change laws. The cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically.

One example of transformational activism is peacekeeping which, as defined by the United Nations, is "a way to help countries torn by conflict create conditions for sustainable peace."
Another example is encouraging choices to live in racially diverse communities. Such communities may literally "transform" communities by opening the minds of residents to new ideas, new cultures, new historical perspectives, and a broader view of life that ultimately can benefit social relations.
Another example of transformational activism is transformational economics. This is the idea that you can change the way resources flow in a society by doing inner work.
Media activism is activism that uses media and communication technologies for social movement, and/or tries to change policies relating to media and communication (media policy activism).
It includes publishing news on web sites, creating video and audio investigations, spreading information about protests, and organizing campaigns relating to media and communications policy. Attempts by grassroots activists and anarchists to use alternative media to spread information not available by mainstream news are also called media activism, as are certain forms of politically motivated hacking and net-based campaigns.
EMBEDDED JOURNALISM
Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be used in the media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The United States military responded to pressure from the country's news media who were disappointed by the level of access granted during the 1991 Gulf War and in the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
At the start of the war in March 2003, as many as 775 reporters and photographers were traveling as embedded journalists. [1] These reporters signed contracts with the military promising not to report information that could compromise unit position, future missions, classified weapons and information they might find.
CRITISIZM
The practice has been criticized as being part of a propaganda campaign and an effort to keep reporters away from civilian populations and sympathetic to invading forces; for example by the documentary film War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.
Embed critics objected that the level of military oversight was too strict and that embedded journalists would make reports that were too sympathetic to the American side of the war, leading to use of the alternate term "inbedded journalist" or "inbeds".
DANGERS
ROAD SIDE BOMBING
MISSILES MAY KILL REPORTERS
LACK OF WAR KNOWLEDGE MAY MAKE THEM EASY TARGET

TRIAL BY MEDIA
Trial by Media is a phrase popular in the late 20th century and early 21st century to describe the impact of television and newspaper coverage on a person's reputation by creating a widespread perception of guilt regardless of any verdict in a court of law.
In the United Kingdom there is a heated debate between those who support a free press which is largely uncensored and those who place a higher priority on an individual's right to privacy and right to a fair trial.
During high publicity court cases, the media are often accused of provoking an atmosphere which not only makes a fair trial nearly impossible but means that regardless of the result of the trial the accused will not be able to live the rest of their life without intense public scrutiny.
The counter-argument is that the mob mentality exists independently of the media which merely voices the opinions which the public already has.
There are different reasons why the media attention is particularly intense surrounding a legal case: the first is that the crime itself is in some way sensational, by being horrific or involving children; the second is that it involves a celebrity either as victim or accused.
IN INDIA
In India, trial by media has assumed significant proportions. Some famous criminal cases that would have gone unpunished but for the intervention of media are Priyadarshini Mattoo case, Jessica Lal case, Nitish Katara murder case and Bijal Joshi rape case.
The media however drew flak in the reporting of murder of Aarushi Talwar, when it preempted the court and reported that her own father Dr. Rajesh Talwar, and possibly her mother Nupur Talwar were involved in her murder, thus reviving memories of JonBenet Ramsey murder, which was hauntingly similar. The CBI later declared that Rajesh was not the killer.
Between September 2004 and March 2005, the media - print, audio and visual all wrote about His Holiness Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal, a Hindu religious leader, suggesting his guilt in a murder case, but the High Courts of Madras and Andhra Pradesh and the Supreme Court of India repeatedly found that there was no material evidence to find him guilty and came down heavily on the media and the Government of Tamil Nadu for misuse of government machinery.

MEDIA ETHICS
Media ethics is the subdivision of applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts, print media and the internet. The field covers many varied and highly controversial topics, ranging from war journalism to Benetton advertising.
The ethics of journalism is one of the most well-defined branches of media ethics, primarily because it is frequently taught in schools of journalism. Journalistic ethics tends to dominate media ethics, sometimes almost to the exclusion of other areas. [1] Topics covered by journalism ethics include:
News manipulation. News can manipulate and be manipulated. Governments and corporations may attempt to manipulate news media; governments, for example, by censorship, and corporations by share ownership. The methods of manipulation are subtle and many. Manipulation may be voluntary or involuntary. Those being manipulated may not be aware of this. See: news propaganda.
Truth. Truth may conflict with many other values.
Public interest. Revelation of military secrets and other sensitive government information may be contrary to the public interest, even if it is true. The definition of public interest is hard.
Privacy. Salacious details of the lives of public figures is a central content element in many media. Publication is not necessarily justified simply because the information is true. Privacy is also a right, and one which conflicts with free speech. See: paparazzi.
Fantasy. Fantasy is an element of entertainment, which is a legitimate goal of media content. Journalism may mix fantasy and truth, with resulting ethical dilemmas. See: National Enquirer, Jayson Blair scandal, Adnan Hajj photographs controversy.
Taste. Photo journalists who cover war and disasters confront situations which may shock the sensitivities of their audiences. For example, human remains are rarely screened. The ethical issue is how far should one risk shocking an audience's sensitivities in order to correctly and fully report the truth. See photojournalism.
Conflict with the law. Journalistic ethics may conflict with the law over issues such as the protection of confidential news sources. There is also the question of the extent to which it is ethically acceptable to break the law in order to obtain news. For example, undercover reporters may be engaging in deception, trespass and similar torts and crimes. See undercover journalism, investigative journalism. Ethics in journalism is an utopia, can never be applied in practice.
Ethics of entertainment media
Issues in the ethics of entertainment media include:
The depiction of violence and sex, and the presence of strong language. Ethical guidelines and legislation in this area are common and many media (e.g. film, computer games) are subject to ratings systems and supervision by agencies. An extensive guide to international systems of enforcement can be found under motion picture rating system.
Product placement. An increasingly common marketing tactic is the placement of products in entertainment media. The producers of such media may be paid high sums to display branded products. The practice is controversial and largely unregulated.
Stereotypes. Both advertising and entertainment media make heavy use of stereotypes. Stereotypes may negatively affect people's perceptions of themselves or promote socially undesirable behaviour. The stereotypical portrayals of men, affluence and ethnic groups are examples of major areas of debate.
Taste and taboos. Art is about the questioning of our values. Normative ethics is often about the enforcement and protection of our values. In media ethics, these two sides come into conflict. In the name of art, media may deliberately attempt to break with existing norms and shock the audience. The extent to which this is acceptable is always a hotbed of ethical controversy. See: Turner Prize, obscenity, freedom of speech, aesthetics.
Media and democracy
In democratic countries, a special relationship exists between media and government. Although the freedom of the media may be constitutionally enshrined and have precise legal definition and enforcement, the exercise of that freedom by individual journalists is a matter of personal choice and ethics. Modern democratic government subsists in representation of millions by hundreds. For the representatives to be accountable, and for the process of government to be transparent, effective communication paths must exist to their constituents. Today these paths consist primarily of the mass media, to the extent that if press freedom disappeared, so would most political accountability. In this area, media ethics merges with issues of civil rights and politics. Issues include:
Subversion of media independence by financial interests. [2]
Government monitoring of media for intelligence gathering against its own people. See, for example, NSA call database.
CROSS MEDIA HOLDING AND MEDIA
The prime purpose of the free press guarantee is regarded as, the need to create a fourth institution outside the government as an additional check on the three official branches- executive, legislative and judiciary.[1] The press is to serve as a powerful antidote to any abuse of power by the government officials and as a means for keeping the elected officials responsible to the people whom they were elected to serve. It is also entrusted with the primary function of providing comprehensive and objective information on all aspects of the countrys social, economic and political life to the public. In addition to these functions a free press plays a crucial role in strengthening an individuals participation in the decision-making process by the government.[2]
However, contrary to what one might expect in the midst of the powerful and proliferating media that constitute a vital part of life today, the public sphere has been shrinking rather than expanding over the past couple of decades. There is a growing threat of monopolies in this sector, which is antithetical to the functions entrusted to it. Certain trends in the media are believed to have contributed to this erosion of the public sphere, which is by all accounts a worldwide phenomenon. One of these trends is the movement towards greater concentration of media ownership (known as media concentration) that is evident in many parts of the world
[3] and is on the rise even in India. The fact is that restrictions on ownership have been important features of media regulation in most mature democracies.[4] It is efforts towards media deregulation which have led to a situation where the number of major corporations that dominate television, movies, music, radio, cable, publishing and the Internet across the globe has dwindled from 50 to less than two dozen over the past two decades. In fact, much of this control is concentrated in fewer than ten massive conglomerates.[5]
For instance, Cable TV, which made its appearance in India in the early 1990s and quickly spread across the country, due to the enterprise of the local cable TV operator, is now a different kind of business. The scale of operation and the presence of almost 100 channels, means that the small cable TV operator no longer calls the shots. Instead, Multi System Operators (MSOs), who act as distribution hubs, have acquired a clout that often extends to the political realm as well. Several of the bigger broadcasters have acquired a stake in MSOs, spelling vertical integration. Given this, the fear of the rise of oligopolies is very real. For example, Siticable (the cable network) and Star (the broadcaster). Zee is another example of a broadcaster extending operations into the MSO segment. These tie-ups indicate vertical integration in the industry. [6]
Draft Broadcast Services Regulation Bill, 2006
To rein in this problem a Draft Broadcast Services Regulation Bill, 2006 was propagated which envisages the creation of a Broadcast Regulatory Authority that is empowered to administer a content code and to restrict cross-media holdings of media enterprises.[7] The bill introduces restrictions on cross media holdings in all electronic ventures capping it at a maximum 20 per cent.[8] Although the relevant section in the draft Bill mentions the need to prevent monopolies across different segments of the media, the present provisions are confined to the broadcast sector. This is not the first of its kind. Similar attempts have been made earlier in the form of the Drafts Bills of 1997[9] and 2001 which failed due to the dissolution of the Parliament.
The provisions in the present Bill aiming to curb such concentration referred to in the draft as restrictions on accumulation of interest - are likely to loom large in the anticipated discussions between the government and industry. The latter has been particularly exercised over this aspect of the legislation, which it describes variously as anti-consumer, anti-choice and anti-market, not to mention against the spirit of free enterprise. In democratic societies, two of the most influential determinants of national identity are the nature of civil society and the debate, which goes on within it. A countrys broadcasting services should provide part of the public sphere, the public forum for that debate to which individual citizens and institutions contribute their thinking on issues of general concern to the community. Their responsibility grows as radio and television become increasingly significant in national life.[10]
Conclusion
The majority opinion of the Supreme Court in Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting v. Association of Bengal[29] was of the view that the broadcast media should be under the control of the public, as distinct from the government. Similarly IMG demanded that the proposed Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India (Brai) should be free from any government interference. Making its stance clearer, it said the CEO of Brai should not be a government official or a government nominee.
[30] Furthermore the IBF said, the draft bill should be discussed with the industry, before having taken to the cabinet and Parliament. The Guild which represents all major stakeholders in the Filmed Content space also would like to play a more active role in this and should definitely be consulted before any such Bill is finalized/passed. [31]
There are bound to be differences of opinion on whether restrictions on ownership are now necessary in the Indian context and, if so, how much, of what nature, and so on. Views are bound to differ on the various aspects of the proposed law and code. However, as American media scholar Robert McChesney has pointed out, the democratic solution to the problem is to increase informed public participation in media policy making. In the absence of such participation, policies will continue to be made in the publics name without the publics informed consent.[32] This is the grievance of those that would be affected if the Bill were passed. They desire a greater representation and opportunity to be heard. In the absence of public discussion on issues like media ownership and management, it is not surprising that most comments on this aspect of the proposed legislation have come from representatives of industry, who appear to be almost more concerned about the impact of the Bill on business than its threat to freedom of expression. In a democracy it is only fair that those who would be adversely affected by passing of such law be given a chance to be heard. There could be a public consultation in which all those interested and to be affected could participate making the process transparent.
As an alternative to the Bill, the representatives of leading media companies in a meeting with the information and broadcasting secretary suggested that all news media be brought under the Press Council Act of 1967 after amending it.[33]
In reference to this, the Press Council of India (PCI) advocating the principle of self- regulation in the media, said that the constitution provides unhindered freedom of speech and expression, subject only to reasonable restrictions. There are also sufficient laws that arm the civil and police authorities to take action against violation of a specific law.[34]Asserting that a set of self developed ethics are already being enforced by it for the print media and that the electronic media cannot be subject to different norms or enforcing agencies, the PCI demanded its conversion into a media council with appropriate changes in its composition and powers so that it could function as an effective quasi-judicial body with a self-regulatory mechanism. The council also reiterated its proposal for setting up a media commission to look into the question of the future growth and prospects of the media in the country. [35]
Thus the judiciary and media bodies seem to on the same wavelength. Both want the press free from governmental interference, neither are opposed to regulations but both are averse to restrictions on freedom of press. What is required is a consultation with these market players and the public, keeping the primary objective of informing the public in mind and the formulation of a viable policy.
Citizen journalism

Citizen journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic"[1] or "street journalism"[2]) is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information,"
Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, which are practiced by professional journalists, or collaborative journalism, which is practiced by professional and non-professional journalists working together. Citizen journalism is a specific form of citizen media as well as user generated content.
The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. For example, you might write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube.
Who are citizen journalists?
According to Jay Rosen, citizen journalists "the people formerly known as the audience," who "were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another— and who today are not in a situation like that at all. ... The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictable."[15]
"Doing citizen journalism right means crafting a crew of correspondents who are typically excluded from or misrepresented by local television news: low-income women, minorities and youth -- the very demographic and lifestyle groups who have little access to the media and that advertisers don't want," says Robert Huesca, an associate professor of communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.[citation needed]
Public Journalism is now being explored via new media such as the use of mobile phones. Mobile phones have the potential to transform reporting and places the power of reporting in the hands of the public. Mobile telephony provides low-cost options for people to set up news operations. One small organization providing mobile news and exploring public journalism is Jasmine News in Sri Lanka.[citation needed]
According to Mark Glaser, during 9/11 many eyewitness accounts of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center came from citizen journalists. Images and stories from citizen journalists with close proximity to the World Trade Center offered content that played a major role in the story.[citation needed]
In 2004, when the 9.1-magnitude underwater earthquake caused a huge tsunami in Banda Aceh Indonesia, news footage from many people who experienced the tsunami was widely broadcast.[16]
During the 2009 Iranian election protests the microblog service Twitter played an important role, after foreign journalists had effectivley been "barred from reporting"[17]. One of the most outstanding contributors from inside Iran has been persiankiwi.[citation needed]
[edit] Criticisms
Citizen journalists may be activists within the communities they write about. This has drawn some criticism from traditional media institutions such as The New York Times, which have accused proponents of public journalism of abandoning the traditional goal of 'objectivity'. Many traditional journalists view citizen journalism with some skepticism, believing that only trained journalists can understand the exactitude and ethics involved in reporting news. See, e.g., Nicholas Lemann, Vincent Maher, and Tom Grubisich.
An academic paper by Vincent Maher, the head of the New Media Lab at Rhodes University, outlined several weaknesses in the claims made by citizen journalists, in terms of the "three deadly E's", referring to ethics, economics and epistemology. This paper has itself been criticized in the press and blogosphere.[18]
An article in 2005 by Tom Grubisich reviewed ten new citizen journalism sites and found many of them lacking in quality and content.[19] Grubisich followed up a year later with, "Potemkin Village Redux."[20] He found that the best sites had improved editorially and were even nearing profitability, but only by not expensing editorial costs. Also according to the article, the sites with the weakest editorial content were able to aggressively expand because they had stronger financial resources.
Another article published on Pressthink examined Backfence, a citizen journalism site with initial three locations in the DC area, which reveals that the site has only attracted limited citizen contributions.[21] The author concludes that, "in fact, clicking through Backfence's pages feels like frontier land -– remote, often lonely, zoned for people but not home to any. The site recently launched for Arlington, Virginia. However, without more settlers, Backfence may wind up creating more ghost towns."
David Simon, a former Baltimore Sun reporter and writer/producer of the popular TV series, "The Wire," criticized the concept of citizen journalism—claiming that unpaid bloggers who write as a hobby cannot replace trained, professional, seasoned journalists.
"I am offended to think that anyone, anywhere believes American institutions as insulated, self-preserving and self-justifying as police departments, school systems, legislatures and chief executives can be held to gathered facts by amateurs pursuing the task without compensation, training or for that matter, sufficient standing to make public officials even care to whom it is they are lying to," Simon testified before a Senate committee in May of 2009. "Indeed, the very phrase citizen journalism strikes my ear as nearly Orwellian. A neighbor who is a good listener and cares about people is a good neighbor; he is not in any sense a citizen social worker. Just as a neighbor with a garden hose and good intentions is not a citizen firefighter. To say so is a heedless insult to trained social workers and firefighters."
Others criticize the formulation of the term "citizen journalism" to describe the concept, as the word "citizen" has a conterminous relation to the nation-state. The fact that many millions of people are considered stateless and often without citizenship (such as refugees or immigrants without papers) limits the concept to those recognised only by governments. Additionally the global nature of many participatory media initiatives, such as the Independent Media Center, makes talking of journalism in relation to a particular nation-state largely redundant as its production and dissemination do not recognise national boundaries. Some additional names given to the concept based on this analysis are grassroots media, people's media, or participatory media.
Blogs as alternative medium
Blogs: An alternative media in contemporary era
Of the audiences are surfing internet, 70 per cent people are using blogs to express their views. For journalists blogs are an alternative source of news and public opinion. Educators and business people use it for sharing knowledge.

TODAY, IN contemporary era, we have various alternative mediums. The word blog is a frequently modified web page in which dated entries are made. Now, blogs are becoming an increasingly popular form of communication in the internet (worldwide web). A further goal is to contribute to a theoretical understanding of how technological changes trigger the formation of new genres and create new alternative mediums, which in turn may affect the genre ecology of a larger domain such as the internet.

The blogs is neither fundamentally new nor unique, but that it, along with other emergent genres driven by interactive web technologies occupies a new position in the internet genre ecology. Of the audiences are surfing internet, 70 per cent people are using blogs to express their views.

Journalists see blogs as an alternative source of news and public opinion so it is used in large scale. Educators and business people see these as environments for knowledge sharing blogs created for this purpose within an organisation or institution are sometimes called k-logs (knowledge logs).

Last but not least, private individuals create blogs as a vehicle for self-expression and self-empowerment. Bloging makes people more thoughtful and articulate observers of the world around them.

All of this is purportedly brought about by the technical ability that blogging software affords to update web pages rapidly and easily. So blogs play a vital role to express your thoughts, feelings, views and opinions.

Moreover, blogs shares similarities with other digital genres, including the personal home pages, which prior to the creation of blogs, was the preferred way to present oneself and one’s views on the web. Blog conveys demographic information about its author primarily in the sidebars and through links, reserving the entry column for the author’s musings of the moment, but their overall functionality is similar.

All this suggests that blogs, rather than having a single source, are in fact a hybrid of existing genres. These are rendered unique by the particular features of the source genres they adapt, and by their particular technological affordances.

The two major types of blogs defined by purpose in the present study could also be placed along the continuum with journal-style blogs closer to online journals, and filter-style blogs closer to community blogs. The ‘intermediate’ characteristics of blogs make these attractive to users. In particular, blogs allow authors to experience social interaction, while giving them control over the communication space.

Combined with the unprecedented opportunity that blogs provide for ordinary people to self-express publicly, these characteristics suggest that blogs would continue to grow in popularity in the future, and that these would be put to increasingly diverse uses.
THE VIRTUAL world is a reality in more ways than one. The cross between the internet and human life has led to a series of mutations. There is a virtual copy of nearly everything. We have market places, libraries, wedding planners, even babies and partners. Cyber space is a bustling milieu of every single aspect of real human experience. Online dating and chats have dissolved boundaries and brought the world closer. While each of these applications has serious repercussions if not used responsibly, the users are learning from their own experiences and making the most of what is available.

Blogs (short form of Weblog) has been around for quite some time now. Blogs in the general everyday jargon are called ‘Online Diaries’. It basically is a free, individualized and customized space on the internet where the owner can put across his/her thoughts to be shared by everybody/selected readers. What started as a way to communicate and share with people beyond the boundaries, has become a most important phenomena. Blogs can be personal, or belong to any particular organization. It can also be varied in its application.



Lately there has been raging debate regarding the role of blogs as an alternate media. Blogs have developed into space for informed opinions and points of view. Blogs inform, they provide an outlook and basically do all that a newspaper editorial does. It is what is called ‘participatory journalism’. User-generated content is the functional element in such blogging. Blogging is just one of the many ways of putting one’s point forward and getting feedbacks. It leads to discussions and solutions. However, accountability is a major concern. Since blogs are more about a personal view point rather than general, there are dangers of defamation and liability.

In 2009, NDTV issued a legal notice to Indian blogger Chetan Kunte for "abusive free speech" regarding a blog post criticizing their coverage of the Mumbai attacks. The post was removed unconditionally and replaced with an admission that it had been "defamatory and untrue" which resulted in several Indian bloggers criticizing NDTV for trying to silence critics.

Like any other form of media regulation, is the primary hindrance to blogs becoming functional media instrument. Self-regulation is a myth. Even a media house finds the tight-rope walk difficult. The job of putting across information and view points, without ruffling any feathers is rare.

For blogs to be seen as a credible device of news dissemination, qualitative measures and factual checks have to be put into place that elevate them to something more authoritative and correct than simple partisan gossip. Until then it will just remain a popular platform to raise issues and voice opinions that may be loud, but always a wee bit dubious.
There are blogs with topics ranging from music to cars, sports to cooking, wedding to bungee-jumping, religion to gothic practice. Today we have Vlog, moblog, tumblelogs, linklogs etc… writing is just a primary use. One can use blogs for uploading personal videos, or audio clips. One can blog using their mobile phones. Blogs have become the new tool of marketing and advertising. Many media personalities have taken to blogging. The Bollywood fraternity has taken to blogging very keenly, using it as a tool for self-promotion and PR. Many bloggers have gone beyond the written word and appeared on radio and television. In fact blogging has got people book deals too. Blogs have also come handy in raising awareness and public participation. The ‘Blank Noise’ Project registered huge support due to blog-marketing. Need is the mother of invention. The evolution of blogs says the same story.


COMMUNITY RADIO
Community radio stations are the new rage in India after country has seen a spate of Fm radio channels mushrooming all over India – you can say Radio is back in our lives.
The trend of having community FM radio stations started in 2006 when Ministry of Information and broadcasting came up with detailed and liberalized guidelines for setting up a community FM radio station earlier the government had allowed setting up of CR FM stations to select educational institutions including the IIT and IIMs.
Well, reader must be wondering what is CR FM station, well its hard to define and it can be said that CR FM radio stations serves the need of a community living in a particular space and its reach is limited to a radius of 10 Kms.
With liberal policies in place the first university in India after the IIMs and IITs to have a CR FM station was Jamia Milia Islamia which got functional in March 2006. Now University of Delhi has also launched its own CR FM station known as “DU 90.4 FM”.
The trial run of the DU FM 90.4 started in august and now it has been officially inaugurated. The studio of the new station is located in North Campus at the School of Open Learning, covering areas in and around the University.
With a 10-km radius, DU 90.4 FM will broadcast community-related programmes as well as those dealing with students’ issues. Speaking on the inaugural function VC of DU said there were lots of expectations from the new venture.
“The community radio will help in tapping the talent of the student community. There will be panel discussions and shows on phone-in counseling and classical music. Students from the University will work as radio jockeys. As for students, their problems relating to health, sanitation and environment will be discussed,” said Vijaylakshmi Sinha, former Deputy Director-General of All India Radio, who has been overseeing this project.
For setting up the CR FM station University of Delhi allocated a budget of 15 lakhs for equipments and other expenses. The technical and programming support is being provided by Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia.
At the start DU 90.4 FM will be broadcasting from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the morning and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the evening. At a later stage DU plans to increase the broadcast time to 8 hours daily and plans to increase the power of transmitters or collaborate with the south campus to make it truly student community radio station.


What is the Broadcasting Bill?
While the need for a Broadcasting Bill has been talked about since 1997, it was only in 2006 that the UPA Government with Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi as the Union Information & Broadcasting Minister brought out the draft for the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill. The Bill, said the I&B Ministry, will regulate the broadcast services with several private TV channels around now. The draft bill, which calls for the setting up of a separate Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI), has covered four major areas in its ambit, which would call for major corporate restructuring by media companies—foreign and domestic—operating in India. These include content, cross media ownership, subscriptions and live sports feeds. Anubhuti Vishnoi explains
• What regulations govern TV services as of now?
Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995 is the basic governing system for all TV channels related issues. However, the Ministry has been of the view for years now that the increase in the number of TV channels requires a special set of laws in keeping with the times and with provision for a regulatory mechanism.
• What is Content Code?
Along with the draft broadcasting Bill, the Ministry has also formulated a content code to regulate the programme “quality” being aired by broadcasters and to “protect the consumers interests”, national interests and right to privacy.
• Why is the broadcasting industry against the Bill and the Content Code?
The big issue is the Government’s “intention” to control or regulate programme content. The industry feels that the Government plans to infringe on their rights as a free media through the two proposed regulations and says that “draconian” laws will be applied, especially against news channels, under the ambit of the Bill if it is allowed to go through. A stringent Content Code and clauses like “national interest” and right to privacy of a citizen may spell the death knell for investigative journalism and sting operations for broadcasters.
The other problem with the Bill is that in an age when citizens are bombarded with news/views through various media (newspapers, cable and satellite TV, Internet, radio and mobile phones), it seeks to enforce outdated concepts of the media and dominance as per broadcasters. The draft Bill, they point out, says that no broadcasting service provider can own more than 20 per cent of another broadcasting network service provider. BRAI is also liable to government control, say broadcasters.
• Status of the proposed Bill and Content Code
While the I&B Ministry planned to take the Bill to Parliament this monsoon session, vehement opposition from the broadcasters has forced a re-think. So while the Ministry still maintains that it will definitely get in a regulation, it is consulting stakeholders. The ministry Content Code may make way for a “self-regulating content code” being chalked out by the National Broadcasters’ Association (NBA). The draft bill on which various states are also being consulted still has the ministry and the broadcasters on opposite ends.